Originally Posted by ChienAboyeur
It qualifies as a role. Most characters in a video game have a role. It does not mean roleplaying is involved.

A character can be a paladin. it does not mean that through gameplay you will roleplay it in a paladin.

The character is a paladin. Paladins are brave and honest. Therefore your character will behave bravely and honestly.
That is the sequence adopted by games like hitman, call of duty etc All the characters have a role. No roleplaying involved.

In a RPG, the sequence differs:

Paladins are brave and honest. The character behaves bravely and honestly. Therefore the character might be elegible as a paladin.

In many so called cRPGs, actions are totally disconnected from the outcome. In some cRPG games, a thief character can be without ever performing a thief characterizing action like theft.

I wasn't referring to class archetypes or stereotypes, etc.

"Someone who bashes monsters" is not a role. Archibald the Brave, who seeks to avenge the murder of his barbarian chieftain at the hands of a goblin warlord, on the other hand, could be an interesting character to play. Whether you can actually role play Archibald in the game or not depends on whether you can choose actions you think Archibald would take.